Businessman acquitted of harassment charges

dubai — A businessman, who was charged with luring a jobseeker to an interview at his Dubai office and then harassed her, has had his three- month jail term and deportation order overturned by the Dubai Court of Appeals.

The Pakistani complainant, on a visit visa, said during the public prosecution investigation that the businessman, a 43-year-old compatriot, lured her into his office on May 9 in Al Rafaa to interview her. But he caught her off-guard, and hugged and kissed her. The man denied a sexual harassment charge at the Court of First Instance.

The Court of First Instance convicted him of the charge on June 28 and sentenced him to three-month imprisonment to be followed by deportation. He appealed the verdict and won as the appellate court acquitted him.

Advocate Hani Hammouda of Kefah Al Zaabi Firm for Advocacy and Legal Consultancy, representing the accused, argued that the complainant gave conflicting statements during the police interrogation and the public prosecution investigation.

“She kept changing her account of the incident. She made up the whole thing as a way to extort cash of my client.”

Lawyer Hammouda also argued that there was a female witness who testified that the complainant and her fiancé tried to blackmail his client for money to drop the charges. The complainant told the prosecutor that the defendant offered her a job over the phone as a clerk at his shipping company. “When I went with my fiancé to his company in Al Karama, he told me to come back again after renewing my visit visa.”

She came back to the UAE on May 8. “The next day, I went to his office and saw he had a meeting with two men. However, when they left he came to me shaking my hands. He then suddenly hugged me tightly and kissed me. I was so shocked I did not know what to do at first. I pushed him away and went to the restroom where I locked myself up and called my fiancé to come pick me up.”

Her fiancé came about two minutes later and had an altercation with the company boss. The couple called the police when they left the premises.

Her fiance, a 22-year-old Afghan, told the prosecution investigator that he was surprised when he heard from her about the businessman’s behavior. “She called me around noon and told me he hugged and kissed her. I went there and knocked on the washroom door so she would get out.”

The court verdict may be contested by the public prosecution at the Court of Cassation.